Adjusting the Tele-Elmar 4/135 for the M9

[luigi bertolotti]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

This question of the 2 stops closure on 135 is a sort of mantra for Leica... if I remember well, it started with the M8 (it's clearly written in the manual) : I think that they insist on this point to avoid discussions when one has to complain about the fact that, indeed, it is rather possible to miss focus with a 135 wide open: and probably, the RF/VF of M8/M9, with its low magnification factor, results in an effective base of measurement that, for 135mm, is under certain standards that they do consider the minimum for such a focal length.

 

Any way, so better if your 135 has been adjusted.... and use it at any f stop you like... ... I have never had a T-E 135 last version in my hands, so haven't idea if is "easier" to calibrate than the old one... my impression is that the build is very different but what this means in terms of serviceability, I don't know... one could trivially think that a lens that is "partially user-dismountable" (the old T-E) is easier to adjust.. but can surely be a false supposition.

[Maarten]

After a steep learning curve, several visits to Solms and a 2mm hex-key, I got most of my lenses focusing well on my M8 except the 135mm Tele-Elmar with removable head.

Then I decided to have my shutter replaced by the silent one and asked Solms to look at my 135mm as well. I left both camera and lens at TS. Solms came back with a proposal for the 135mm that was too expensive in relation to the value of the lens.

During the shutter replacement the sensor was adjusted as part of the service. I noticed it was really adjusted because while my 50mm and 90mm were still focusing correct, the focus of my 28mm Elmarit was suddenly 'off'. Solms corrected that at a later stage (in about 10 minutes!).

After the sensor adjustment I could also work with my Tele-Elmar 135mm. Still do not know if someone in TS did that for free or if it was only the sensor adjustment. The lens is now 'within spec' which means for me I get a 50% in-focus score at F5.6.

 

Maarten

[elgenper]

Bought one of these 2nd hand almost a year ago, and found it wouldn´t focus to infinity, nor did the RF give correct focus. Shimming was no option, since the optics was already too far from the mount.

 

Almost gave up on the focussing mount; the lens head worked perfectly on a Visoflex (which was the main reasom for me to purchase it), but finally submitted it for service to a very good, independent technician here in Stockholm (Werner Schaden at LP-foto, if any local reader is interested).

 

Werner found out that the mount had probably been dismantled and reassembled by someone you quite up to the task: the helicoid has 16 entries, and no marking of the correct position, so it was in the wrong one... So he had to try one after another; he said (sighing) that the thirteenth try was the right one.

 

Now it´s perfect, at all distances, even wide open (but difficult indeed to focus). I´m very happy to have it, although it remains my least used focal length.

 

(Should have added: mine is the older, thin mount with a clip-on lens shade. Also, even after the repair, the f/stop index isn´t perfectly centered (there are two of them, opposite each other); doesn´t worry me one bit. Don´t know if the newer model has the same type of helicoid).